


the little thing i call the spawn of devil

by ninecube



Category: LOONA (Korea Band)
Genre: i wrote this with my last remaining brain cell, matchmaker gowon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-18
Updated: 2019-10-18
Packaged: 2020-12-22 17:41:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21080501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ninecube/pseuds/ninecube
Summary: Hyunjin has three cats. Heejin has a hamster. They share an apartment. Chaos (love) ensues.





	the little thing i call the spawn of devil

**Author's Note:**

> This story is just the manifestation of my stream of consciousness. It's very out of character for me to write such a lighthearted piece but I still hope y'all like it~

Hyunjin has had enough. 

She sees in her peripheral the tiny demon that she has gotten used to seeing for the past week. Sensing the impending danger, her three cats jolt from their respective corners in the room. 

"Oh no, no, no. You're not going in there again!" Hyunjin jumps out of her chair and slides into a lying position on the floor in front of her bed frame. She’s not going to let the damn fur ball underneath her bed again. 

Hyunjin spent four hours trying to coax it out with her cats’ chaser wand the last time it happened. It didn’t work obviously because she found out that the troublemaker was taking a nap under her bed. 

It doesn't succeed this time though, as it crashes straight into Hyunjin's palms. 

"Hah!" Hyunjin whoops in victory. 

The hamster wriggles in Hyunjin's grasp, trying to break free. 

"Stay still, will you?" Hyunjin makes a face at the mammal. 

She gets up from the floor and makes her way to the room where the creature came from. But evil will always be evil. Even before Hyunjin steps out of her room, the hamster bites her. 

Hyunjin screams, almost guttural, drawing the strength to scream from the pain and frustration that she's feeling simultaneously. (It’s mostly frustration really because the bite feels just like an ant bite.)

This is it. 

"Jeon Heejin!" Hyunjin storms towards her housemate’s room. 

It’s a Saturday, so her housemate should be in, not that she would know anyway since they barely interacted even though they have been sharing an apartment for a month now. She realises that this will be the first time they’re going to interact more than just a nod and smile. Apart from her name and that she has a pet from hell, Hyunjin knows nothing about the other girl. Okay, maybe also the fact that she’s really pretty. 

She would have freaked out if she tries to approach Heejin the other times, but all Hyunjin could focus on now is the hamster bite. She barges into the room without knocking. In her defense, she isn't so impolite usually, but who really cares about manners when evil just bit her on the thumb? 

Feeling another presence in the room, Heejin stops sketching. She turns around, pulling down her headphones, and sees Hyunjin standing in the middle of her room, looking rather pissed. 

"Oh, Hyunjin! What's the matter?" Heejin’s eyes dart to her hamster wiggling in Hyunjin’s hands. She smiles knowingly.

Hyunjin thrusts her hands towards Heejin’s face. 

“This! This is the matter!” 

"Cheesestick!" Heejin places her palms together under Hyunjin’s hands, and the taller girl drops the hamster down like a hot potato. 

As soon as it's back in its owner’s hand, the cream-furred Roborovski dwarf hamster rests obediently. 

Hyunjin almost hisses. 

"I'm so sorry about her, she can be a handful sometimes," Heejin laughs at her own pun. 

Hyunjin looks at her weirdly. 

“You know, like a handful?” Heejin balls her hand up slightly to explain. “Never mind.” 

And it's unfair how Hyunjin can't stay angry. Of all the confrontation scenarios she has imagined, she never thought she would be be rendered speechless at the mere presence of her housemate. 

_"Kim Hyunjin! How's everything?" Gowon asked. _

_"What's everything?" Hyunjin looked up from her bowl of udon. _

_"Back at the apartment? With Heejin?" Gowon had this stupid grin on her face that Hyunjin so desperately wanted to wipe off. _

_Gowon is their mutual friend and the culprit who linked them up. _

_"It's hell." Hyunjin ate the piece of chicken in her bowl angrily._

_"Oh, come on. Heejin's not that bad!" Gowon defended. _

_Hyunjin held a hand up as she chewed on the mouthful of udon. Gowon looked at her expectantly with an eyebrow raised. _

_"It's not Heejin." Hyunjin swallowed the food. "It's her damn hamster." _

_Gowon, forgetting that she was drinking tea, snorted and she felt a sting in her nose immediately. _

_"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!" She yelped, clutching her nose. _

_Hyunjin rolled her eyes at her friend's dramatic tendencies and passed her a napkin. Instead of tending to her nose, Gowon dabbed the napkin under her eyes. _

_"I can't believe you're afraid of a hamster!" Gowon laughed, the pain in her nose long forgotten. "Don't you have like three cats?" _

_Reminded of her cats' cowardice, Hyunjin clicked her tongue. _

_"You should have seen them. I forgot they're cats for a moment," she huffed. "I think they forgot too."_

_"Like owner like pets I guess." Gowon shrugged and sipped on her tea. _

_"Park Gowon!" Hyunjin shouted._

_"What!" Gowon raised her hands in defense. "You're the one who's scared of a tiny animal."_

_Hyunjin placed her chopsticks down, ready to list out the reasons why her fear for hamsters isn’t irrational._

_"Okay, firstly, hamsters are evil," she said, putting extra emphasis on the word ‘evil’. _

_Gowon nodded, signalling for Hyunjin to continue. Hyunjin could tell her friend wasn't interested but she continued anyway. _

_"Secondly, they're demons! Have you seen their claws?" Hyunjin asked to no one in particular since Gowon was scrolling through her Instagram feed. _

_"Mhm," Gowon hummed as a reminder that she was still physically there. _

_"And lastly," Hyunjin paused for dramatic effect, but also to finish the last bit of her lunch. _

_"Lastly," she repeated. "They're literally the spawn of the devil himself." _

_Gowon obnoxiously slurped on the rest of her tea, not sparing Hyunjin a look. _

_"You essentially just paraphrased your first point," Gowon stated as a matter of fact. "I get it, you're just scared."_

_"No, I'm not! And that's not the point!" She wondered why she's still friends with Gowon. _

_Hyunjin doesn't get worked up easily and Gowon has to admit it's funny to see her so animated once in a while. _

_"The point is," Hyunjin paused, this time to think about the point she was driving at. _

_"The point is?" Gowon prompted. _

_"The point is, why would anyone keep hamsters as pets? Unless they're evil too!" Hyunjin argued, feeling proud of herself for connecting the dots. (She didn't connect shit.) _

_Gowon is supposed to be the eccentric one in this friendship, but Hyunjin losing her marbles over a harmless pet is definitely a strong contender. _

_"Hyunjin, trust me when I say Heejin is the sweetest girl I've met," Gowon assured, but Hyunjin was clearly not having it. _

_"You've met like what? Five people?" Hyunjin said with the spite of a seven-year-old. _

_"Hey!" Gowon gasped, placing her hand over her chest . “I have more than five friends F.Y.I.” _

_“There’s definitely a streak of evilness in Heejin,” Hyunjin said with so much conviction that Gowon wondered where this confidence came from._

Hyunjin feels like a fool now. Gowon is right. Heejin is a sweet girl (though a little weird). 

“I hope Cheesestick hasn’t been giving you problems? This rascal escapes like she’s a seasoned jailbreaker. I really need to change the cage.” Heejin places her hamster back into the cage that is nestled in the corner of the room.

Cheesestick latches onto the side of the cage the moment she’s inside and starts to gnaw on the wire. Hyunjin narrows her eyes at her nemesis who seems too eager to break out again. She’s convinced that the sole purpose of the hamster’s existence is to make her life difficult.

Hyunjin hangs around awkwardly in Heejin’s room, not sure when it’s appropriate for her to leave. Heejin doesn’t give her a chance either because before she can excuse herself, the girl is standing barely a feet away from her. 

“To apologise on Cheesestick’s behalf, how about I treat you to a meal?” Heejin suggests, tilting her head slightly. Hyunjin finds it rather adorable, maybe a little too adorable that she has already forgotten about the pain that is still lingering on her thumb.

“Apologise for?” 

Heejin points to Hyunjin’s thumb.

“Oh, this,” Hyunjin mumbles. She looks around the room for the clock and finally sees a Stitch clock on her desk. It’s about to be lunch time. “Sure. I guess.” 

Heejin claps her hands together. 

“Great! I’ll see you in ten?” 

Taking that as her cue to leave, Hyunjin nods and retreats to her room. As she exits to the hallway, she sees her cats sitting by the door to her room and looking at her lazily. She takes another look at Heejin’s room and back at her cats. 

_“_What just happened?”

*** 

Turns out a lot has happened.

Cheesestick has broken out a couple of times. (Hyunjin doesn’t bother counting anymore.)

One time Hyunjin got so tired of chasing it out, she just sat on her bed with her cats in her arms, and screamed for Heejin to get her pet out. The poor girl had to crawl under the bed to retrieve her hamster while Hyunjin rambled on about getting a new hamster cage. 

Two months have passed since their first interaction (or confrontation) and Hyunjin is now friends with Heejin. They’re close enough to grab meals together and comfortable enough to have movie nights. 

Whenever movie night happens, Hyunjin would bring her cats to the living room and Heejin would bring Cheesestick. 

_“Put her back!” Hyunjin took a step back as soon as she spotted the hamster in Heejin’s hand. _

_“Hyunjin, relax. Cheesestick is in her ball. See?” Heejin raised the hamster ball in her hands higher for Hyunjin to see. _

_Hyunjin’s three cats were lounging by her feet, but they all kept close eyes on the creature in the ball._

It's movie night again. They don't usually schedule their movie nights, they just do it whenever they feel like it.

The housemates sit on the two ends of the sofa, their legs outstretched. Hyunjin has Custard, a sweet orange-furred Tabby, on her lap. In Heejin's arms is Sourdough, a perpetually angry-looking grey Persian, who seems to love Heejin a lot more than his owner - he always curls up beside Heejin instead of Hyunjin. And on the coffee table lies Croissant, a beautiful Ragdoll, sound asleep.

“Oh! Oh! This is my favourite scene,” Heejin whispers. Hyunjin doesn’t know why she’s whispering like it’s a secret because it really isn’t. They’ve watched Tangled five times and each time "I See the Lights" starts playing, Heejin will say the same thing. 

To be fair, Hyunjin doesn't really care for movies, and she doesn't mind going along with Heejin's choice. (She thinks it’s cute when Heejin gets all excited over that particular scene.)

"Hyunjin?" She hears Heejin. 

She doesn't even realise she's staring until Heejin kicks her in the foot.

"You alright?" Heejin looks at her with concern.

Hyunjin feels a blush creeping up her neck, so she sinks a little deeper into the sofa as an attempt to hide it. She doesn't know why she stared. It was nothing in particular, just Heejin cuddling Sourdough while being all giddy over Eugene and Rapunzel sharing a song on a sampan.

"I asked if you want ramen." Heejin scoots a little closer and Hyunjin sinks further into the sofa.

"Uh, sure." Hyunjin quickly gets up to go to the kitchen. "Sorry, I think I fell asleep just now."

"Oh," Heejin simply says. She doesn't elaborate but Hyunjin already knows what it meant, and boy does she feel guilty. (But can you really blame her? They’ve watched Tangled five times already!) 

"I mean!" Hyunjin flinches at how loud that sounded. "I mean... I wasn't really falling asleep, you know, I was just…"

Heejin, with Sourdough still in her arms, waits for her to continue. Hyunjin's gaze shifts to her cat and she's met with the look of disappointment. Or rather, he's thoroughly unimpressed. 

"I was just meditating," Hyunjin says before she could stop herself. _What a save, Hyunjin, what a save. _

Sourdough purrs softly and struggles a little. Heejin immediately lets him go and the Persian cat walks off, his tail deliberately hitting his owner's leg. 

Heejin stifles a laugh when Hyunjin scowls at Sourdough. 

"I'll cook," Hyunjin offers. "As an apology for…" 

"Meditating?" Heejin doesn’t wait for her to finish her sentence.

Hyunjin sighs inwardly. _You’re a fool, Hyunjin._

Defeated, she nods and heads towards the kitchen with Heejin following behind her with a big smile. 

They prepare for their supper in silence - Hyunjin cooks while Heejin sets the table - until Heejin remembers something. 

"Have you seen Cheesestick?" Heejin asks, her eyes scanning the floor for the hamster. The last time they saw her, she was going around Croissant in circles until the cat got fed up and jumped onto the coffee table. 

Hyunjin's first instinct is to look around her feet, but the little devil isn't there which means she could be anywhere. 

"Cheesestick?" Heejin squats and looks through the gaps between the furniture. 

"She'll appear when she feels like it." Hyunjin switches off the gas. She’s hungry. She can't be looking for a problematic pet now. "Let's eat first."

Heejin sighs, knowing full well what Hyunjin means by "she'll appear when she feels like it". Her hamster has always been quite a troublemaker even before she moves into the current apartment. She meant to change the cage after she realised Cheesestick has been out and about in the shared apartment, but after the first few encounters with Hyunjin, she thought it could stick around for a bit longer. 

But now that she is seeing Hyunjin around more often without the excuse of her little devil, there isn't any use for the old cage anymore. 

It still feels quite surreal to be sitting across Hyunjin at their dining table and sharing a pot of ramyun. She was intimidated by her housemate when she first saw her. Hyunjin always has a straight face on, barely smiling each time they met along the hallway. But her impression of Hyunjin changed when she realised that she has been leaving her a myriad of varieties of bread for breakfast.

And there are her cats too. She caught glimpses of Hyunjin playing with her cats as she passed by her room. She would lie on the floor and she has the prettiest laugh. Also, who names their cats after bread? Though she made the connection after she noticed sourdough bread, custard bread and croissants appearing on the dining table more often than the rest of the other varieties. 

Heejin doesn't know when the silence around them starts becoming comfortable but she's glad it turned out that way. She steals a glance at the girl in front of her and smiles a little at her own thoughts, oblivious to the way Hyunjin is tensing up. 

"Uh, Heejin?" Hyunjin calls out softly. 

Heejin hums in response as she slurps on her noodles. 

"I think there's a cockroach underneath the table." Hyunjin lets out the breath that she has been holding in. 

"A what?" Heejin hastily swallows the noodles and throws down her chopsticks. She makes sure they clean the apartment every three days, and they only just cleaned it yesterday. There can't possibly be a cockroach. 

Hyunjin, still seated, slowly pushes herself away from the table. She peeks under the table but there isn't anything. Confused, she ducks under the table and scans the area more carefully. She swears it's a cockroach and it's a big one. 

"Kim Hyunjin," Heejin calls out. Hyunjin has never heard the other girl use a tone as stern with her. 

She pokes her head up from under the table, two eyes trained on the plastic ball in Heejin's hands. Of course it's her. 

"Are you calling my baby a cockroach?" Heejin feigns offense. 

Hyunjin can't even say anything. She feels so stupid. Of course there isn't any cockroach, they just cleaned yesterday! She glares at the hamster in the ball and feels a whole lot of grudge building up inside her. 

"Yeah, I'm calling your baby a cockroach and what about it?" Hyunjin mumbles under her breath as she finishes up her noodles. 

Heejin chuckles at Hyunjin's puffed up cheeks, which resembles Cheesestick when she's eating. And without any warning, she says, "Nothing. You're calling yourself a cockroach too. I guess." 

"What?" Hyunjin turns to look at Heejin so quickly that she’s bound to have a whiplash.

Heejin places her bowl into the sink. 

"Just leave the dishes, I'll wash them in the morning," Heejin says, raising her voice a little as she walks down the hallway. 

Hyunjin blinks at the empty seat in front of her. And she blinks again. And again.

***

Hyunjin still hasn't gotten a chance to ask Heejin what she meant that night. 

Well, given how much time she has been spending with Heejin lately, she had plenty of chances to ask but she didn’t know how to. She had the perfect chance to ask when they visited her favourite bakery cafe where Gowon is working part-time, but she didn’t. 

_“Oh, hey, fancy seeing you two on a date,” Gowon teased, wiggling her eyebrows as her eyes flitted from Hyunjin to Heejin and then back to Hyunjin again. _

_Hyunjin rolled her eyes and just as she was about to retort, Heejin replied, “I didn’t know you’re working today.” _

_“Why? If you knew, would you have gone somewhere else?” Gowon asked, her little smirk never quite leaving her face as she took the absence of a denial of her remark as a victory. _

_“Maybe.” Heejin shrugged and carried on to place her order as well as Hyunjin’s. _

_While Heejin rattled off their orders, Gowon took them down without missing a beat as she had them memorised. Hyunjin blinked. Once, twice, thrice. A sense of deja vu washed over her. _

_“Kim Hyunjin!” A shrill voice cut through her thoughts. She saw Gowon snap her fingers in front of hers and she swatted her hand away. _

_"Follow your date." Gowon pointed to Heejin who was looking at her in amusement. Hyunjin shouldn't have looked because when she did, she felt her face heating up again. It happened a lot recently. _

_Hyunjin muttered "she's not my date" just low enough for the cashier to hear. _

_"Keep telling yourself that, my sis." Gowon patted her friend on the shoulder and rushed her away. "Get a table, I'll bring the order to you soon."_

_Heejin pulled on Hyunjin's sleeve and pointed towards the stairs leading up to the cafe area. The way Heejin was excited reminded her so much of the little devil back at home and that was probably the first time she ever smiled at the thought of her nemesis. _

She really should have asked then but Heejin was going on and on about a boy who kept hitting on her and the way she went off was pretty entertaining so she didn't want to stop her. 

"You're a Dean-lister and you can't even figure out if she likes you? What's the point of that 4.0 GPA in Humanities for?" Gowon pokes around her container of fruits. 

“Where’s the link in that?” Hyunjin asks.

“There’s no link.” Gowon smiles sweetly.

"You only have an hour break and you want to spend it clowning me?" Hyunjin groans. 

"When do I not spend my time clowning you though?" Gowon puts a piece of pineapple in her mouth. 

Hyunjin pulls the container away her friend to prevent her from eating. 

"Tell me!" she whines.

"Oh god. I'll tell you. Just don't do that again," Gowon cringes at Hyunjin's attempt at cuteness and snatches her lunch back. 

Hyunjin waits for Gowon to say something as she sips on her iced americano. 

"She means you're her baby too." Gowon casually pops a grape into her mouth. 

Hyunjin gasps so harshly that she chokes on the coffee. The cafe employee merely laughs, clapping as hard as her friend is laughing. 

"What the hell?" Hyunjin says after her coughing fit stops. 

Gowon pulls a napkin from the napkin holder and passes it to Hyunjin, the wide grin on her face reminiscent of how hard she laughed just now.

"Don't tell me you've not thought about this before." Gowon raises an eyebrow in suspicion. Hyunjin can be really oblivious sometimes. 

Hyunjin stays silent for a good five seconds.

"I have,” Hyunjin whispers. And God knows how hard Gowon is trying not to slap some sense into her best friend. Violence is never the answer. 

"Then?" Gowon screams, balling her hands into tiny fists and shaking them. 

It's a good thing it's down time at the cafe and they are sitting at the balcony which is segregated from the main dining area - the manager can't hear her. Gowon most definitely doesn't want the reason of her dismissal to be "screaming over a dumb friend's love life". 

Hyunjin winces at the sheer loudness of Gowon's voice. She grabs a cube of watermelon and stuff it into her friend's mouth. 

"Let me live!" Hyunjin sighs. "It's Heejin we're talking about, okay? Drop dead gorgeous Heejin, talented Heejin, kind and sweet Heejin, hardworking Heejin, Heejin. And I'm just awkward Hyunjin."

Gowon sniggers. Shaking her head, she eats the last piece of fruit in the container. 

"Yet months ago you're so sure she's evil just because she has a hamster." Gowon bats her eyes. 

Hyunjin picks at the ice with the straw as she recalls her conversation with Gowon that afternoon. She wonders what went through her mind in that moment because she really didn't make any sense, but she isn't going to admit that to Gowon. 

Hyunjin's silence, however, is enough for Gowon to claim this victory, though she decides not to tease her friend any further. 

"So, what about you?" She asks. 

"What about me?" Hyunjin frowns. 

"Do you like her?" Her blonde friend asks seriously. It's one of the rare times Gowon gets serious so she feels obliged to put some thought into answering her. (Truth is she has put more than enough thought into this particular question, but she always dismisses it when she's close to getting the answer.) 

"Then tell her. She'll be more than happy to know that."

"Huh?" Hyunjin is confused. How would Gowon know? Unless… "Wait, you knew that she likes me all this while?" 

Gowon merely shrugs and packs her container. With a pat on Hyunjin's back, she leaves, announcing that her break is over. 

"Park Gowon!" Hyunjin shouts after her friend as the door to the balcony closes. 

"Good luck!" The cafe employee shouts back as she descends down the stairs.

“God, I hate her.” 

***

Later in the evening, she receives a text from Gowon. 

"TELL HER" is all it says, and that is all she can think of when she reaches her apartment. 

She slides the key into the keyhole and unlocks the door. _Tell her. _She turns the doorknob and pushes the door open. _Tell her. _She takes her shoes off and walks to the living room. _Tell her. _

"Oh, hey! You're back." Heejin greets her with a wide smile from the sofa. 

_Tell her_. 

Even when she isn’t around, Gowon’s presence can still be felt. 

"Hi." Hyunjin returns the smile. 

And then she sees it. Cheesestick, Heejin’s hamster, lying on top of Croissant, her cat. The same cat that's always the first to run away when Cheesestick is within a radius of 50 meter. And now he’s just lying there.

What is happening? 

She must have looked ridiculous with her mouth and eyes wide opened because she hears Heejin laugh. 

"Cheesestick climbed on top of him," Heejin explains. 

To say Hyunjin is surprised is an understatement. She’s dumbfounded. 

"He didn't move?" Hyunjin asks, still standing at the edge of the living room. She hates to admit it but she's afraid that the hamster will sense her if she moves an inch closer. Her cat doesn't seem to be afraid anymore, but that doesn't mean she’s not!

Heejin shakes her head, looking fondly at the two pets finally getting along. 

She narrows her eyes at her cat and mutters, "Traitor."

"Did you say something?" Heejin shifts her gaze to Hyunjin. 

"Oh, uhm, I said it's lovely," Hyunjin lies, unsure if her housemate actually heard what she said. 

"It is, isn't it?" Heejin beams, moving down from the sofa to sit closer to Croissant. She brushes his fur affectionately and Hyunjin catches herself smiling. 

"Cheesestick seems to like Croissant a lot though. She's always trying to get close to him," Heejin says. "Kinda like us, isn’t it?" 

Hyunjin blinks. Where is Park Gowon when she needs her? She can't do this. 

"Who's like who?" Hyunjin laughs nervously as she shuffles towards the sofa. Heejin has picked up her hamster so she dares to move closer. 

She squats down beside her cat, but before she can touch him, he leaves. She can’t trust anyone in this household, not even her pets. Hyunjin stares at the empty spot where Croissant was at, trying really hard to ignore Heejin's gaze that's boring into the side of her face. She chooses to ignore it because she knows that she won't be able to think properly if she looks at her, especially not when she's this close. 

Then she does something that Gowon will definitely yell at her for. She escapes. 

"I'm going to take a shower." It’s a lame excuse. She knows, but that’s all she could come up with.

She runs into her room and quickly gathers her pajamas before dashing to the bathroom. 

She doesn't see how Heejin's face falls, and she doesn't see how Heejin looks at Cheesestick helplessly, and she certainly doesn't hear Heejin say, "Gowon is right. I really need to _tell _her."

***

Hyunjin sees another text from Gowon after she showered.

“HAVE YOU TOLD HER?” 

It feels almost as if Gowon is waiting for her update, or maybe she _is _waiting by her phone for an update. Either way, it kind of frustrates her. She replies with a “omg shut up” and throws her phone onto her bed. 

Hyunjin knows she shouldn’t have ran away. After the talk with Gowon in the afternoon, she’s more certain that Heejin does like her back, but that one percent chance that she doesn’t still scares the hell out of her. 

“Kim Hyunjin! Pick up your phone! Pick it up. Pick it up. Pick it up.” Her phone rings and Heejin’s voice fills the room. Heejin recorded this and changed it into her ringtone as a joke after that one time she didn’t pick up her calls - she got 12 missed calls from her - to ask her to feed Cheesestick because she would be home late. She seldom receives calls anyway so it doesn’t occur to her to change the ringtone. 

She looks at the caller ID. _Don’t Pick Up. _

She picks up anyway and regrets almost immediately when the familiar high-pitched voice attacks her ear. 

“Kim Hyunjin! How dare you ask me to shut up!” Gowon yells. 

“Get off my back!” Hyunjin shouts back. 

“What did you do?” Her best friend continues to shout. 

“What did I do?” Hyunjin doesn’t know why she’s still shouting but she feels like she can’t lose. 

“Heejin just texted me a sad face. What did you do?” Gowon asks, her voice returning to its usual tiny font state but with more authority.

_Oh no._

“Why are you assuming it’s me who did something?” Hyunjin says in her weak attempt to fight back. 

“Did you not?” Hyunjin can almost see Gowon raise her eyebrow at her. 

“I did.” She immediately succumbs. “I ran away.” 

There’s a brief moment of silence and Hyunjin pulls her phone away from her ear. 

“Like your freaking cats!” Gowon screams. 

Of all things, Hyunjin doesn’t expect her to say that. And it reminds her of Heejin’s question before she ran away. Her cats are like her and she’s like her cats.

“If you like her, just tell her!” Gowon emphasises each word. “Don’t be like your cats! Be like a tiger! It’s still a cat so it’s similar I guess.” 

“You’re not making any sense.” Hyunjin rolls her eyes. 

“Yeah, that sounds better in my head,” Gowon says as an afterthought. “Okay, but that’s not the point. The point is! Tell her! Trust me, it won’t go wrong. I just want to see my two cute but useless gay friends together, why is it so difficult?” 

Hyunjin looks at her cats who are huddled together on her beanbag and sighs. If Croissant can let Cheesestick near him, she sure as hell can tell Heejin how she feels. 

"Okay, I know what to do now." Hyunjin hangs up, not caring if Gowon was still speaking. 

She marches over to the beanbag and picks up her three cats in a swift motion and heads out to the living room. 

Hearing footsteps, Heejin looks up. She's back on the sofa, all bundled up. Cheesestick is nowhere to be found. 

Hyunjin takes one look at the TV. It's playing Doraemon, though she doesn't know why she's expecting it to be Tangled again. Still carrying her cats, Hyunjin sits down beside Heejin who is watching her curiously. 

Hyunjin takes a deep breath and closes her eyes.

"My cats and I would like to apologise," she says solemnly. 

Sourdough whines in protest and jumps out of Hyunjin's arms. He quickly settles down on Heejin's lap, not wanting to be a part of Hyunjin's narrative. She really has nothing but traitors in this house. 

"I'd like to apologise," she says again. 

She lets go of Custard and Croissant, and the Ragdoll goes to his usual spot on the coffee table while the Tabby lies down on the empty spot between Hyunjin and Heejin. 

"Sorry for running away just now," Hyunjin gathers enough courage to say, her words coming out as a mere whisper. 

A glint of acknowledgement shines in Heejin's eyes and the cat mom no longer entertains the thought of running away again. 

"I'm aware, you know." Hyunjin pokes Sourdough in the butt. 

"How you feel towards me. I mean, I totally didn't get any help sorting that out from Gowon," She laughs sheepishly.

It isn't funny but Heejin laughs anyway. Perhaps Hyunjin being unapologetically awkward is one of the reasons why she finds her adorable. 

"I like you, Heejin," Hyunjin confesses and she's surprised at how easily she said it. And from the way Heejin snaps her head up to look at her, she isn't expecting it as well. Who does? When Hyunjin just bolted out of the living room 30 minutes ago?

"I don’t really know how it started either. It’s like one day I just looked at you and thought to myself, ‘hey, I want to spend more time with her’. And it scares me a little how much I’ve grown to like you because you’re so smart and kind and I feel like you’re way out of my league. Then when you played Naruto on the TV and watched Tangled for the third time, I realised, yeah, you’re a dumbass. Just like me.”

Heejin punches Hyunjin lightly on the shoulder to which the latter laughs off. 

“I like our movie nights. I don’t mind watching Tangled with you over and over again," Hyunjin pauses as she thought of something. “Maybe we need a break in between each time we watch it. We’ll discuss this later.” 

Custard purrs as Hyunjin scratches her head, putting a small smile on his owner's face. Heejin boldly but carefully reaches for Hyunjin’s hand and laces their fingers together. Hyunjin doesn’t know what people meant by ‘giddy with happiness’, but in that moment, she understands. 

"Trust me when I say I really wanted to talk to you when you moved in but you're so pretty it's a little intimidating." Hyunjin recalls the times she tried to initiate a conversation when they walked past each other in the hallway but only to smile at Heejin because her brain just refused to function. 

"You're pretty intimidating yourself too, Kim Hyunjin," Heejin teases. "If it wasn't for the bread you left for me in the morning, I probably wouldn't want to get close to you."

Hyunjin laughs, her canine teeth showing, another thing that Heejin adores. Unbeknownst to Heejin, leaving bread for her was just a coincidence. Hyunjin always buys just enough bread for breakfast, and she makes sure she has enough time in the morning to eat them before she goes for her classes. 

But she overslept one time - on the second week of the semester - and her morning routine became a complete mess. She didn’t have time to eat _and _she forgot to bring the bread out. She was grumpy for the entire day until she came home to a Stitch post-it in her bread basket. 

A neat “Thank you for the bread!” was written in the middle of the post-it. Hyunjin was confused to say the least. She actually thought there was a friendly ghost in the apartment but she figured it wouldn’t go through the trouble of getting a pen and paper to leave her a message. (_It would probably write with the ketchup bottle in the fridge_, she reasoned.) So, it could only be Heejin. 

She decided to leave extras for her housemate for the next few days. She left the door to her room opened and realised that Heejin was _always_ in a rush in the morning. She would hear Heejin’s alarms go off until there was a short period of silence, and then followed by a “ah shit here we go again” in the hallway as the girl rushed to the bathroom. 

From then on, Hyunjin makes it a point to leave a bread or two for Heejin. And Heejin doesn’t stop leaving the post-its either, which she makes sure to keep. Her housemate also starts leaving snacks and extra food for her when she gets home late. 

Hyunjin swore she was going to approach Heejin to thank her for all the food and maybe start making friends after three weeks of sharing the same living space, but then Cheesestick struck. She always knew Heejin has a hamster but the little creature had been non-offensive until she decided it was a good choice to infiltrate her room. But also, if not for the chaotic pet, she would have stalled talking to Heejin for another three weeks because “she’s too pretty it’s intimidating”. 

“I can buy other food for you in the morning if you like,” Hyunjin offers, daring to look at Heejin straight in the eyes. 

“I’d like that,” Heejin beams as she hugs Sourdough closer to her. 

“How about a breakfast date tomorrow?” Hyunjin scoops Custard up and puts him on her lap as she sits closer to Heejin. Now they’re sitting side by side, shoulders touching. 

“Does that mean I have to wake up early?” Heejin groans at the thought of having to set her alarms earlier. 

“I’ll wake you up.” Hyunjin bumps Heejin’s shoulder playfully. She no longer tries to hide the affection she feels towards the other girl. Heejin sees it in her eyes.

They sit in silence as they watch the next episode of Doraemon. They had forgotten how the titular cat is mortally afraid of rats, until a scene of it plays and they give each other a knowing look before bursting out in laughter. 

"I can't believe Cheesestick is the one who brought us together." The irony. 

"Oh no, it's not her. Well, partly because of her, but most of it is me actually," Heejin says. 

Hyunjin looks at her quizzically. 

"I left the cage unlocked sometimes." 

"You what?" Hyunjin turns her body towards Heejin and the sudden movement startled Custard who hisses at his owner. 

"The first few times Cheesestick escaped were all her doing. I wasn't lying when I said she escapes like a seasoned jailbreaker, but one time I heard a commotion from your room and realised you're scared of her, so I decided to just let her out sometimes," Heejin laughs, and it turns into a full laughing episode when she sees the bewilderment and betrayal on Hyunjin's face. 

"I was just waiting for you to come storming into my room to be honest," Heejin admits.

"Wow." She's right, Gowon's wrong. Heejin _is _evil.  
  


**Author's Note:**

> I would like to dedicate this to my big brain twin yen. If not for you and your hatred for hamsters, this would not have existed xoxo.   
I would also like to dedicate this to my two troublemakers. It has been a decade but I still miss y'all.


End file.
